Page 3 of Gilded Gods

“No.” I gasp, my body trembling from the rage swirling inside me. My palm is suddenly itchy, begging to pick up the gun and put them and myself out of misery. “Like it’s not bad enough you’ve been bringing home girls from your clubs for the past few months. And now, you’re marrying Mom’s best friend? Are you kidding me, Dad? How could you do this to her?”

Athena was always around when Mom was sick. She helped the in-home staff tend to her every need. But I didn’t realize she also cared for my father’s needs.

“Phe.” Dad steps forward to touch my arm, but I recoil, taking a few steps backward and out of his grasp. “You have to understand what it’s been like for me losing your mom. Athena is not here to replace her. And I haven’t been bringing home other women. It’s been Athena all this time.”

I look at Athena. “You were my mom’s best friend. How long were you screwing her husband behind her back?”

“I don’t like your tone or language, Ophelia. Please don’t speak to me with that dirty mouth. You sound like my sons.”

Athena has never liked cursing or sexual innuendo. One day when she was at my mother’s side, she overheard my dad’s men in the hallway talking about women they screwed. I’m used to it and don’t care. Men are pigs. But she insisted my dad fire them for being socrass.

Her words, not mine.

Two days later, those men were replaced by new ones. I should have seen it back then. Was the writing on the wall? Was my dad sneaking around behind my mom’s back?

“You’re upsetting Athena,” Dad interjects. “Stop acting like a child, Ophelia.”

I roll my eyes. “She’s upset? Please. Spare me, Dad. And since when do you care how I talk or what I do? When was the last time we even saw each other? I could have been in here getting gang-banged by every man in town, and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

“I’m down for that,” Ares mutters.

Atlas grunts his approval.

“Boys,” Athena groans. “Manners, please. Ophelia is going to be your sister.”

“Stepsister,” Ares corrects with heat in his eyes. “It’s not like she’s related to us.”

“That’s hardly the point,” Athena snaps at her oldest son before angling her body to look at me. “Sweetheart, we didn’t want you to find out this way. And your dad is right. I will never replace your mom.”

I shake my head in disgust. “Damn right, you won’t!”

“Ophelia,” Dad snaps, his eyes wide with anger. “Stop talking to my fiancée with such disrespect. We thought you’d be happy to have a family again.”

“Family?” I laugh in his face before looking at the three hot assholes on my couch. “Like I wantthemto be part of this family?”

“Aww, c’mon, sis.” Ares runs a hand through his silky black hair. “Don’t you want to get to know your big brothers?” He waggles his eyebrows at me. “We’re going to befamily. And we like to share.”

Oh my God.

He glances at his brothers when he says the wordshare. Creepy grins tug at their mouths like they’re about to laugh at a private joke.

“I’m not your sis,bro.”

“See, I think she’s getting the hang of it,” Ares says to his brothers. “Our little sis is such a spitfire.”

Annoyed, I head for the exit, speaking with my back to my father. “I’m out of here. Fuck this shit.”

“If you want to continue managing Olympus,” Dad shouts, “you’ll stay and eat dinner with us. But if you walk out that door, Ophelia, I will wash my hands of you.”

Olympus is my dad’s highest-earning nightclub. He put me in control of it after graduating high school, and it’s been the only thing keeping me going since Mom died. Being a boss in my own right has given me purpose.

I need that club.

It’s my life force.

I spin around to face him. “You wouldn’t.”

“I don’t want to disown you.” His eyebrows knit together as if he’s struggling with this decision. “But I will.”

---